Africa faces a myriad of social, political and economic challenges, which need urgent and concerted efforts to address. While the urgency for remedial steps is unquestionable, most important is the nature of steps.

United Nations Women reported that traditional cutters in Sierra Leone have pledged to abandon and advocate against FGM which is still not illegal in the country. This added support will contribute to the clampdown on initiation ceremonies by the secret societies that uphold the practice.

On February 22, the people of Togo will go to the polls. There have been protests against the rule of Faure Gnassingbé who took over power from his father in 2005. A constitutional change that would allow President Gnassingbé to extend his stay power till 2030 was approved by the parliament. Protesters are still demanding that Faure must go.

Over the past two years, Ivorian student O’Plerou Grebet has designed over 350 emojis that celebrate African culture, history and contemporary life. He incorporated all his emojis from his project into an app called ‘Zouzoukwa’, so that Africans can use emojis ‘that correspond to their realities’.